openssl genrsa generate key with a passphrase

when I'm using similar approach what is specified here Generate private key encrypted with password using opensslI'm having issue - I can decrypt without providing a passphase/password. Why is this? I was expecting it to ask for a passphase/password before decrypt it. What am I doing wrong? Below the logs I did in Windows in Git Bash, but I'm getting same result in Ubuntu.

auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ openssl genrsa -out key.pem -passout pass:foobarpwd 2048
Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus (2 primes)
........+++++
............................................................................................+++++
e is 65537 (0x010001)
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ openssl rsa -in key.pem -pubout -out pub.pem
writing RSA key
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ echo "Hi Alice!" | openssl rsautl -encrypt -inkey pub.pem --pubin | base64
ioLPkvYY6+MqNbjQEgkKk+6UctHqPLeZZ12WTSezpWB1Q0aPXecQhptl92OD6Kk0rGbAf3+iFeWI
lYkfZDEs66a3EYRHKPe4ZspEo1mBFxFyI2VjSl0J2k0UEtDcuCion8lRic4GxPLd5tJeDI+hnUYo
Wbmbb3iBcW5HkXrREgq5EfXcQn7pQk9L0jT+KgZ3HOswz4njhPrlP2BHC/DaeobsqXRH3eFnmNt2
0tN8c5v9v1y1Eh0bQ22z3vlWldrbP6B7zU+Thv0N7ftVSOKbQwZ9upN+GCYexQO4KqegER1AwLs6
F3yluElBlHWncPpwwIBjK7TB48VAlYQ+FyFhIQ==
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ echo "ioLPkvYY6+MqNbjQEgkKk+6UctHqPLeZZ12WTSezpWB1Q0aPXecQhptl92OD6Kk0rGbAf3+iFeWI
> lYkfZDEs66a3EYRHKPe4ZspEo1mBFxFyI2VjSl0J2k0UEtDcuCion8lRic4GxPLd5tJeDI+hnUYo
> Wbmbb3iBcW5HkXrREgq5EfXcQn7pQk9L0jT+KgZ3HOswz4njhPrlP2BHC/DaeobsqXRH3eFnmNt2
> 0tN8c5v9v1y1Eh0bQ22z3vlWldrbP6B7zU+Thv0N7ftVSOKbQwZ9upN+GCYexQO4KqegER1AwLs6
> F3yluElBlHWncPpwwIBjK7TB48VAlYQ+FyFhIQ==" | base64 -d | openssl rsautl -decrypt -inkey key.pem
Hi Alice!
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ openssl genrsa -out key.pem --passout pass:foobarpwd 2048
Generating RSA private key, 2048 bit long modulus (2 primes)
................................................+++++
......................+++++
e is 65537 (0x010001)
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ openssl rsa -in key.pem -pubout -out pub.pem
writing RSA key
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ echo "Hi Alice!" | openssl rsautl -encrypt -inkey pub.pem --pubin | base64
eiuR7qf46hMDNUlejo8FGWDRYW6VrTTDV0l93+jP2cz5FSzoFbNXuAFjYHTf5EMBcyRT7ZGXBbgm
TkpuZX5on844j61rTEYLpLH9+bidFuHOpNGp3nSooXCxUs0xX+qKVZQ8ZVHEYUmQGDb++v/f+9/f
LXrl+GiLUAhGePr+rtYVVlE2kwzwLbnUC/G8G+M45xkH6Pqn2ewdalgZY87MlA5ZahSfJxjnB0nC
/5L2iTqD/RbatuQeEFP2oeOhVI+VJbb/ilJBqvVd+eH2Xl4sTySVbfxP5oeEbQSvQqRnJW/ZBhZt
gOcov4hf2vdBm/2jY58y7wMMO1IkbMUZiQRkIg==
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$ echo "eiuR7qf46hMDNUlejo8FGWDRYW6VrTTDV0l93+jP2cz5FSzoFbNXuAFjYHTf5EMBcyRT7ZGXBbgm
TkpuZX5on844j61rTEYLpLH9+bidFuHOpNGp3nSooXCxUs0xX+qKVZQ8ZVHEYUmQGDb++v/f+9/f
LXrl+GiLUAhGePr+rtYVVlE2kwzwLbnUC/G8G+M45xkH6Pqn2ewdalgZY87MlA5ZahSfJxjnB0nC
/5L2iTqD/RbatuQeEFP2oeOhVI+VJbb/ilJBqvVd+eH2Xl4sTySVbfxP5oeEbQSvQqRnJW/ZBhZt
gOcov4hf2vdBm/2jY58y7wMMO1IkbMUZiQRkIg==" | base64 -d | openssl rsautl -decrypt -inkey key.pem
Hi Alice!
auser@pc MINGW64 ~
$

1 Answer

The reason private key was generated without passphrase is just because there was no encryption has been specified to encrypt generated key. The command should look like

openssl genrsa -des3 -out key3.pem -passout pass:"foobarpwd" 2048
openssl genrsa -aes -out key3.pem -passout pass:"foobarpwd" 2048
openssl genrsa -aes256 -out key3.pem -passout pass:"foobarpwd" 2048

in result the key file will have content when used aes256

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
Proc-Type: 4,ENCRYPTED
DEK-Info: AES-256-CBC,09B36E3B49DE4DB249D71CC8FE7C7DCE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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

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